From September 19 to 28, the 43rd Catalan Book Week will take place, which for the second consecutive year will be held on Passeig de Lluís Companys in Barcelona, a central, spacious, easily accessible location, ideal for enjoying books and outdoor activities.

Once again, the Publications Service of the Autonomous University of Barcelona will be present through the Vives University Network (XVU). New releases such as  Perla marina, resina de pi. Apunts de poesia catalana de principi de segle, Pompeu Fabra a Badalona. Història d'un mural or Tot un món en català. 800 topònims per a la correcció oral i escrita will be showcased at booth number 1, together with other publications from university presses belonging to the XVU.

The presentation of volumes I and II of Catalan Literature of Postmodernity, co-published by the UAB Publishing Service and the University of Barcelona, is scheduled for Wednesday, September 24. The event will take place at 6:45 p.m. on Stage 1.

On Thursday, September 25, the presentation of the winning works of the Joan Lluís Vives Awards for University Publishing 2025 is scheduled. The event will take place at 5:30 p.m. on Stage 2.

The book L’ètica en la recerca a la UAB. Els primers trenta anys has been edited by José Luis Molina, professor of Social and Cultural Anthropology at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and director of the Research Ethics Committee (CERec), and anthropologist Sílvia Villagrasa Krasnobayeva.

The volume collects the experiences and personal stories of the protagonists who have been part of CERec from its beginnings until now: research staff, animal welfare advisory staff, and technical and administrative staff. Some forty people who have been responsible for the ethical evaluation of some 6,000 research projects and training and awareness courses and, in general, for advising UAB research staff.

“Their testimony allows us to understand the social, legislative and technological changes in research ethics at the university and in the Catalan, state and international system, and offers a comprehensive and critical view of the progress and challenges in this area,” says José Luis Molina.

The content of the book is divided into three large blocks, inspired by the changes experienced by CERec itself in response to the general situation. The first block, animal research, was dominant in its first stage. Following that, the evaluation of bioethics projects (“human” research), the subject of the second block, took centre stage. Finally, the third block describes the incorporation of the social sciences and humanities.

A final part of the volume is devoted to reflecting on the challenges that will have to be addressed in the near future, such as the effects of artificial intelligence, big data or genomic editing, among others. Another topic focused on is the evolution of the current model for reviewing research projects in the face of increasing competitiveness and diversity of projects to be evaluated.

Source: Sala de premsa UAB.

Johari Gautier Carmona, journalist and author of the book El hechizo del tren, will give a lecture on February 21, at 7 p.m., in the Audiovisual Room of the Monastery Museum of Sant Cugat del Vallès (Pl. de l'Om, 1).

The talk, entitled "The protagonists of the first railway line in the Peninsula", will be based on his novel, which tells the story of the railroad from its beginnings in Latin America to its arrival in the Iberian Peninsula, through the experiences lived by its main promoters.

The conference is part of the Cycle of Conferences on the World of Trains, organized by the Associació d'Amics del Ferrocarril de Sant Cugat del Vallès and can also be followed live on the YouTube channel of the Federació Catalana d'Amics del Ferrocarril: youtube@canalFCAF6925.

Writer Duna Corominas Pardàs, author of El clau que sobresurt and winner of the XXXII Valldaura–Pere Calders Memorial Novel Prize, has recently been interviewed on Ràdio Sant Vicenç dels Horts.

The work, submitted under the pseudonym “Lourdes”, was awarded in the latest edition of the prize, jointly organised by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès, and endowed with €3,000. The prize annually recognises original works written in Catalan and is part of the collaboration between both institutions to promote literary creation.

During the interview, Corominas reflects on her trajectory as an author and the creative process behind the novel, as well as her impressions after receiving the award. The book will be published by the UAB Publications Service within the Gabriel Ferrater collection.

The full interview is available on the Ràdio Sant Vicenç dels Horts website: 

Eduard Roure Blàvia, professor and writer from Lleida, will present his novel El metall i els turons, next Thursday, April 18, at 7 pm, at the bookstore La Fatal (Vallcalent street, 65, 25006 Lérida).

The event will include a reading of several fragments of the book and will be attended by Ester Graell, philologist and teacher; Mariona Roure, photographer and art historian; and the author.

The work is a modern fable, disguised as a thriller or western, and has been the winner of the XXIX Novel Prize "Valldaura-Memorial Pere Calders" of 2023, organized by the UAB and the City Council of Cerdanyola del Vallès. El metall i els turons, as Roure himself points out, is "a modern tale that revolves around the old story of the confrontation with power, in this case, provoked by the awareness for the conservation of the environment".

Eduard Roure Blàvia was born in Lérida in 1973 and teaches Catalan language and literature at the Manuel de Montsuar Secondary School in the same city. His works include: Les altes balconades (Pagès, 1999), Les Talúries prize for narrative; the short novel Lligall trobat a la Cabana (Proa, 2008), finalist for the Pere Calders prize; the novel L'última badia (Pagès, 2012), creation aid prize for the best novel project of the Narrativa Lleida Awards; and the novel La nit de les oques (Viena, 2016), Ciutat de Badalona prize for narrative. Currently, she collaborates as an article writer in the supplement Lectura del diari Segre.

The Publications Service of the Autonomous University of Barcelona has taken part in the II Forum Vives Meeting on University Publishing of the Xarxa Vives of Universities, held on 14–15 May at the University of Alicante.

The meeting brought together managers and technical staff from university publishing services with the aim of analysing the main challenges and opportunities in the sector. Representing the UAB publishing house, Joan Carles Marset, head of the service, attended the event.

The event focused on the transformation of the university publishing model, particularly in areas such as digitalisation, internationalisation, data management and the incorporation of artificial intelligence into editorial processes.

The institutional welcome was delivered by the Vice-Rector for Research at the University of Alicante, Juan Mora, who highlighted the role of the Xarxa Vives in promoting university knowledge in Catalan and in developing shared publishing projects.

During the meeting, the platform La Conversa was presented, a Catalan-language science communication initiative promoted by the Xarxa Vives with the participation of 18 universities, designed to bring research closer to society in a context of information overload and misinformation.

One of the main sessions focused on artificial intelligence applied to publishing, featuring Professor Antonio Ríos from the Department of Languages and Computer Systems at the University of Alicante, who presented various experiences in automating editorial processes such as review, proofreading and translation.

The meeting also included a training block focused on data analysis and digital tools. In this context, functionalities of the Open Journal Systems platform were presented for accessing language statistics, as well as a new plugin developed by the Polytechnic University of Catalonia that enables the generation of automated journal summaries and links articles to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The event concluded with the round table “Present and future of university presses”, featuring representatives from Eumo Editorial, the Polytechnic University of Valencia and the University of Alicante, who discussed the presence of Catalan in academic publishing and research evaluation processes.

The UAB Publications Service positively values the meeting, which has helped strengthen collaboration between university publishing services and advance the digital transformation of academic publishing.

Source: University of Alicante (UA) and Forum Vives of University Publishing of the Xarxa Vives of Universities: https://www.vives.org/2026/05/19/serveis-publicacions-aborden-integracio-ia-processos-editorials/

From October 20 to 26, the International Open Access Week is celebrated, an initiative that promotes the free and universal dissemination of scientific knowledge. As every year, the Publications Service of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) reaffirms its commitment to open science, the transfer of knowledge to society, and the promotion of the use of Catalan as a language of science.

For over a decade, the Publications Service has demonstrated this commitment by actively participating in various collective spaces defending open science, such as the Public Knowledge Project —where we maintain the translations of its tools and participate in its technical committee—, the European Diamond Capacity Hub, the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), the Union of Spanish University Presses (UNE), as well as in European and international projects such as DIAMAS, CRAFT-OA or ALMASI, among others.

Recently, the Service has participated in the round table on «Technological infrastructures and funding of the diamond route» during the 3rd Meeting of Professionals in Scientific and Academic Publishing, held on September 18 and 19, 2025, as well as in the panel discussion «Expert Panel "Diamond Dreams & Data Streams: Shaping Sustainable Open Access» at the closing of the European project CRAFT-OA, from October 6 to 8, 2025.

This commitment is also reflected in the resumption of the informal meetings of Catalan scientific diamond-model journals, which offer open access content without charges for readers or publication costs for authors, as these are covered by institutions. The meeting, promoted by the Service and hosted by the CRAI of the University of Barcelona, took place last April and included the participation of EAPC, IEC, UAB, UB, UJI, UPC, UPV and CSUC. Participants agreed on the need to strengthen collaboration and develop shared strategies to achieve sustainability, quality, and international projection of their journals.

The lines of action presented fully align with the strategic axis of the UAB Publications Service, which actively promotes the free dissemination of knowledge through the digital journals service and the open access monographs platform. These actions align with the UAB Institutional Open Access Policy, which promotes the use of open licenses, authors’ rights retention, and open access training.

Through these actions, the Publications Service highlights its commitment to the UAB Open Science strategy, strengthening the visibility and quality of university research.

Image: International Open Access Week. (2025). Retrieved from https://www.openaccessweek.org/resources

Cecot Comerç ha publicat a la seva pàgina web una entrevista a Gabriel Izard amb motiu de l'aparició del seu darrer llibre, Innovación y liderazgo. El nacimiento del código de barras, editat pel Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB).

A l'entrevista, l'autor reflexiona sobre innovació i lideratge col·laboratiu i lliga la història del naixement del codi de barres amb l’actualitat, la importància de l'alt impacte de la tecnologia a les empreses i com és possible posar a la pràctica el concepte win-win (tots hi guanyen).

Gabriel Izard va néixer a Sabadell el 1956, és economista i ha estat professor de Màrqueting, Gestió de la Distribució, International Business i Business in Action a la UAB durant més de trenta anys. Ha estat quinze anys membre de l’Associació Espanyola de Codificació Comercial (Aecoc), on va participar en la creació del codi de barres. Actualment és delegat comercial a Espanya de l’empresa Axicon Auto ID, que desenvolupa i produeix equips de verificació de codis de barres arreu del món. A través de la seva experiència professional, l’autor relaciona el naixement del codi de barres i la seva incidència en la digitalització, la innovació i el lideratge empresarial.

Cecot Comerç està integrada per empresaris i empresàries dels diferents gremis i associacions empresarials que conformen la patronal catalana Cecot i representa directament 4.000 empreses del sector del comerç i prop de 120.000 treballadors. Aquesta entitat és una de les fundadores de la Unió d’Entitats de Retail de Catalunya · RETAILcat.

On April 17, Ràdio UNAL, belonging to the National University of Colombia (Bogotà), interviewed Julio Mario Hoyos and Juan Carlos Moreno, Biologist and Philosopher, respectively, and authors of the book Las claves de la investigación Científica, recently published by the Publications Service of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB).

The interview was included in the program Panorama de la Ciència, produced by the Colombian Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences, and can be listened to in full at the following link: https://radio.unal.edu.co/detalle/claves-para-entender-la-investigacion-cientifica

The historian of science Oliver Hochadel, author of the book El mito de Atapuerca published by the Servei de Publicacions of the UAB (2013), is featured in a new interview on the Educational Evidence portal, conducted by David Rabadà, PhD in Geological Sciences and professor of Earth Sciences, where he analyzes the role this site has played in the construction of scientific and media narratives.

In the conversation, Hochadel explores how Atapuerca has become not only an international reference in the field of paleoanthropology, but also a paradigmatic case of the relationship between science and the media. As he explains, one of the keys to its success has been the ability of scientific teams to communicate and generate public interest around their findings.

The author points out that, for years, researchers established a close relationship with journalists, whom they often saw as allies in the dissemination of scientific knowledge. This connection helped consolidate a successful narrative that has turned Atapuerca into a phenomenon that goes beyond the academic sphere.

These reflections are in line with his book El mito de Atapuerca, in which Hochadel examines how major scientific narratives are constructed and the role played by dissemination, institutional interests, and the media.

The full interview can be read at the following link:
https://educationalevidence.com/oliver-hochadel-sobre-atapuerca-ellos-vieron-a-los-periodistas-como-amigos/

About the author

Oliver Hochadel (Bruchsal, Germany, 1968) is a historian of science and a senior researcher at the Institució Milà i Fontanals (CSIC) in Barcelona. His research focuses on the interaction between science and its publics throughout history. He has developed his academic career in several European countries and in the United States, and for nearly twenty years he also worked as a science journalist.